Minecraft is a sandbox construction game created by Mojang AB founder Markus Per

sson, and inspired by the Infiniminer, Dwarf Fortress and Dungeon Keeper games.
Gameplay involves players interacting with the game world by placing and breakin
g various types of blocks in a three-dimensional environment. In this environmen
t, players can build creative structures, creations, and artwork on multiplayer
servers and singleplayer worlds across multiple game modes.
Minecraft is available to all players for 19.95 (US$26.95, 17.95). When purchased,
singleplayer and multiplayer game modes can be played using the downloadable st
and-alone launcher. Minecraft Classic is available to play for free. Minecraft d
evelopment started around May 10, 2009, and pre-orders for the full game started
being accepted on June 13, 2009. Minecraft's official release date was November
18, 2011. On September 20, 2014, Minecraft for the computer became the best-sel
ling PC game of all time. On January 4, 2015, Minecraft for the computer reached
18 million sales.
On August 16, 2011, Minecraft: Pocket Edition was released for the Sony Xperia P
lay gaming smartphone. After its exclusivity with Sony expired, it was released
for Android devices on October 7, 2011, and iOS devices on November 17, 2011 for
US$6.99. On April 2, 2014, Minecraft was released for the Amazon Fire TV. It co
ntains all the same features as the Pocket Edition as well as support for the Fi
re TV's controller. On January 10, 2015 Minecraft: Pocket Edition reached 30 mil
lion sales.
On May 9, 2012, Minecraft was released for the Xbox 360 on Xbox Live Arcade for
US$20, where it subsequently broke every previous sales record.
On February 11, 2013, Minecraft: Pi Edition was released for the Raspberry Pi. I
t is based on the Pocket Edition and is available for free at Mojang's dedicated
blog. The Pi Edition is intended as an educational tool for novice programmers
and users are encouraged to open and change the game's code using its API.
On December 17, 2013, Minecraft was released for the PlayStation 3 on the PlaySt
ation Store for US$19.99. The release was almost identical to the Xbox 360 Editi
on and was developed in tandem with the Xbox 360 Edition from then on.
On June 26, 2014, the Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3 editions' sales passed the number
of sales for the PC edition of Minecraft, leaving the Minecraft series having s
old more than 54 million copies world-wide and become third best-selling video g
ame of all time.
Minecraft was released for the PlayStation 4 on September 4, 2014, the Xbox One
on September 5, 2014 and the PlayStation Vita on October 14, 2014.
On September 15, 2014, Mojang AB and all of its assets (including Minecraft) wer
e purchased by Microsoft for US$2.5 billion.